Your Joy Is Not Selfish

“Joy is the most vulnerable thing we can experience. We have to practice gratitude in order to be joyful.” — Brené Brown

Joy doesn’t always arrive with a big entrance.

Sometimes, it shows up quietly, like sunlight through a window you forgot to open. It’s a favourite song at just the right moment. A laugh you didn’t see coming. A deep breath where anxiety used to live.

And when it does, you might feel something surprising.

Guilt.

You might wonder if you’re allowed to feel this lightness, especially when others are struggling, especially when the world feels heavy.

Especially when you haven’t “earned” it by crossing everything off the list or fixing all the parts of yourself you’ve been told are wrong.

Joy isn’t selfish.

Joy is a return. A remembering. A resistance.

It’s a way of saying that despite it all, I am still alive, and I want to feel that fully.

As Audre Lorde reminds us, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence; it is self-preservation.”

And caring for yourself includes allowing joy to move through you without apology.